Become Stronger Chapter 424 Discussion

(MTLed most of this, so take the review with a grain of salt.)

Summary for this is somewhat misleading, IMO, promising you more of a straightforward story of the rise of an avenger through world-hopping. Instead, the story is much more about the slow healing of the MC from the tragedy he experienced (good! At least in theory, IMO the actual resolution of this was kind of abrupt in hindsight), a slow build love story between the MC and ML (okay), and the overarching mystery of the way the ML's storyline interacts with that of the MC (bleh).

I especially found that mystery plot a drag partly because nothing about the eventual truth or resolution for the ML's situation was surprising, and partly because I went from charmed by the ML to super-seriously bored slash annoyed with how much less competent he was in comparison to the MC. It felt like the more the ML fell for the MC, the more brain cells and personal motivation he lost. I understood his increasing dependence on the MC, but at the same time it was a huge turn-off because the author seemed to feel that meant the ML had to change from an active player in individual arcs to a bystander there to cheer on the MC and eat popcorn, while occasionally (or in certain acts, infuriatingly often) whingeing about how difficult his own tasks were.

To a great extent, I really wish Spoiler

the author had stuck with the initial, much more adult take on the ML that we first met in the modern actor arc (the second one, if I remember correctly). The more childish version of him that the MC had to deal with throughout the later half of the story was immensely annoying; once the joke of him being a teen stuck in the body of some hotshot, supposedly villainous character got old, I basically just wanted scenes focusing on him to be over as quickly as possible, so we could get back to the MC's ownage reel.

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Overall, I'd still say this was worth reading if you want an interesting, plotty take on QT. But I'd also say that most of the freshness here is in the individual arcs rather than the overarching plot. I was left feeling wistful that I would never get to see the MC returning to his old world wreathed in hellfire and ready to pierce the sky with his brutal revenge. And I especially feel like it'd have been nice if there'd been a cultivation world arc, even though it probably wouldn't have fit well with the overarching plot.

Things I liked:

- truly enjoyable depiction of what it'd look like with an MC butchering their way through romantic-leaning QT worlds with a strict focus on points

- maybe my favorite western fantasy themed arc in any QT story. The world was really richly drawn and interesting to read through despite using bog-standard elements and themes

Things I didn't like:

- ML becoming an incapable babby type character while also hogging screen time

- the modern spirits arc. So interminable that even when important plot started happening, I couldn't get back out of skim mode 😭

- zero tension towards the end because the author fell into the trap of both a simple, been-there-done-that kind of resolution AND the MC being so hilariously OP that he could just handwave away any issues by then